Causes & Settlement

The term industrial dispute is defined by Section 2 (k) of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 as, any disputes or differences between employers and employers, or between employers and workmen, or between workmen and workmen, which is connected with the employment or nonemployment or the terms of employment or with the conditions of labour, of any person.

Economic causes Political Causes Personnel Causes Indiscipline

Strike:
According to Industrial Disputes Act 1947, a strike is a cessation of work by a body of persons employed in an industry acting in combination; or a concerted refusal of any number of persons who are or have been so employed to continue to work or to accept employment.

Stay away Strike Stay-in Strike Slow Down Strike Tools down Strike Sympathetic Strike Hunger Strike Picketing Boycott Gherao

Lock-out :
Lockout means closing of a place of business of employment or the suspension of work or the refusal by an employer to continue to employ any number of persons employed by him.

Machinery For Handling Industrial Dispute

Preventive Machinery (Voluntary or Non-voluntary)

Settlement Machinery (Statutory)

Workers Participation in Mgt.

Collective Bargaining

Grievance Procedure

Tripartite Bodies

Code of Discipline

Standing Orders

Conciliation

Court of Enquiry

Voluntary Arbitration

Adjudication

Conciliation Officer

Conciliation Board

Labour courts

Industrial Tribunals

National Tribunals

It is a method whereby the workers are allowed to be consulted and to have a say in the management of the unit. Like: Works committee, JMC, Shop council and joint council.

A situation in which essential conditions of employment are determined by a bargaining process undertaken by representatives of a group of workers on one hand and of one or more employers on the other.

Grievances are symptoms of conflict in the enterprise. Management can prevent the occurrence of the industrial disputes by solving the individual problems.

Tripartite Consultative machinery aim to bring the parties together for mutual settlement of differences in a spirit of cooperation and goodwill. Like: ILC and SLC The representatives of the workers and employers are nominated to these bodies by the Central Govt. in consultation with All-india organisations of workers and employers.

It is a set of self-imposed mutually agreed voluntary principles of discipline and good relations between the management and the workers in industry. It was approved by the 16th ILC held in 1958. It contains three sets of code :
Management and union agrees Management agrees Union agrees

The Industrial Employment Standing Orders Act, 1946 made obligatory that standing orders would govern the conditions of employment The standing orders regulate the conditions of employment from the stage of entry to the orgn. to the stage of exit from the orgn. It provides DOs and Donts which acts as a code of conduct for the employees.

Conciliation is the practice by which the services of a neutral party are used in a dispute as a means of helping the disputing parties to reduce the extent of their differences and to arrive at an amicable settlement or agreed solution. The ID Act ,1947 provides for conciliation and emphasises for the appointment of conciliation officers or a board of conciliation .

The conciliation proceedings time-limits have been prescribed as 14 days in case of conciliation officers and two months in the case of a board of conciliation

The act prohibits strike and lockouts during the pendency of conciliation proceedings before a board and for seven days after the conclusion of such proceedings.

Conciliation Officer:

The law provides for the appointment of Conciliation officer by the govt. to conciliate between the parties to the industrial dispute. The conciliation officer is appointed by the appropriate govt. by notification in the official gazette. At the state level, the commissioner of labour, Additional commissioner or the deputy commissioner of labour may be appointed as conciliation officer for disputes arising in an undertaking employing more than 20 workmen..

The board is tripartite and adhoc body It consists of a chairman 2-4 other members The chairman needs to be an independent person and other members are nominated in equal nos. by the parties to the disputes The board must submit its report to the govt. within the 2 months of the date on which the dispute was referred to. The period can further be extended by Govt. for 2 months

To submit its report within 6 mons. This report is subsequently published by the govt. within 30 days of its receipt. Workers right to strike , employers right to lockout remain unaffected. It aims at inquiring and revealing causes of a dispute, therefore is known as fact-finding machinery.

It refers to getting the disputes settled through an independent person chosen by the parties involved mutually and voluntarily. Arbitration offers an opportunity for a solution of the dispute through an arbitrator jointly appointed by the parties.

It consists of settling disputes through intervention by the third party appointed by the govt. The law provides the adjudication to be conducted by the :
Labour Court Industrial Tribunal National Tribunal

A labour court consists of one person only, normally a sitting or an ex-judge of a High Court. The issues referred here are:
The legality of an order passed by an employer under the Standing Orders. The application and interpretation of Standing orders Discharge & dismissal of workmen and grant of relief to them Withdrawal of any statutory concession or priviledge. Illegality of strike or lockout. All matters not specified in the 3rd schedule of ID Act, 1947.

It is also a one-man body. The issues include:

Wages including the period and mode of payment. Compensatory and other allowances. Hours of work and rest intervals. Leave with wages and holidays. Bonus, profit sharing, provident fund and gratuity, Shift working Rules of discipline Retrenchment Any other matter that may be prescribed.

Involves questions of national importance or the industrial dispute is of such a nature that undertaking established in more than one state are likely to be affected by such a dispute. Two assessors are appointed by central govt.